The City of Bellevue is standing up a new City office that will be directly focused on delivering the vision for an activated pedestrian corridor between Lake Washington and the burgeoning Wilburton district. The “Grand Connection” concept has been in the works for over a decade, but it was kicked into higher gear in 2023 as the city advanced plans for a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge over I-405. The Grand Connection Crossing is one of the biggest capital projects that the City of Bellevue has ever undertaken.
The establishment of a new office comes just as the City hires a contractor in the hopes of lining up plans that can quickly be implemented with potential state funding. Heading up the Office of the Grand Connection will be Nathan Torgelson, exiting a nine-year tenure as Director of the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI), the city’s permitting agency.
Torgelson announced his decision to leave SDCI this spring, a move described as a “mutual decision” between Torgelson and Mayor Bruce Harrell. His time leading SDCI was marked by highs and lows: record population growth that led to significant levels of housing production, but also internal issues including an ethics scandal after permit reviewers were accused of providing preferential treatment to certain firms. Harrell begins a search for a new SDCI director at a time of record low permit intake at the city, a fact that directly impacts staffing at a department that is largely funded by permitting fees.
Meanwhile, Torgelson starts a new chapter on the other side of the lake, just as Bellevue continues to assert itself on the regional stage via ambitious housing and transportation planning.
“The Grand Connection program represents Bellevue’s ability to innovate, partner and transform public spaces,” Bellevue City Manager Diane Carlson said in a release touting the news. “And we are thrilled Nathan Torgelson is joining this team to help us build an iconic corridor that will attract businesses, visitors and locals to our vibrant city.”
Last fall, the Bellevue Council got a first look at potential concepts for the Grand Connection Crossing, options that align with the $150 to $200 million cost range that the city sees as feasible. The city envisions a 30- to 40-foot-wide bridge just south of the Sound Transit guideway east of Bellevue City Hall, with public gathering spaces on either end and at least one mid-connection access point with a stair and elevator. The project is planned to be forward-compatible with a potential highway lid over I-405, which would be a much bigger undertaking.
A centralized office is intended to “encompass all management elements” for projects along the corridor, according to the City.
“The areas of expertise and focus among the Grand Connection Office staff include land use and real estate planning and coordination with developers, public space activation and placemaking, public-private partnerships and stakeholder relations and communication, engineering & infrastructure delivery, program management and execution, and fiscal strategy and financing tools,” the city news release noted.
Bellevue had been hoping that $50 million seed money could be included in a potential state transportation package in 2025 for the Grand Connection Crossing, but lawmakers in Olympia were forced to focus on a significant funding shortfall that threatened to delay existing highway projects. But City lobbyists did secure $250,000 out of a $900,000 request for funding to modify Bellevue’s city hall plaza to accommodate a future connection to the crossing. And the legislature also modified existing state law around tax increment financing to allow Bellevue to use that tool as one component of funding the full crossing.
Focusing growth in the Wilburton area is a central part of Bellevue’s long-term growth strategy, with additional pedestrian and bike infrastructure seen as an essential ingredient in actually seeing that growth come to fruition in a sustainable way. The neighborhood is well positioned as a multimodal hub, with a 2 Line light rail station directly connecting to the future 42-mile Eastrail bike and pedestrian corridor that is set to run from Renton into Snohomish County. But the built environment remains intensely focused on car-dependent uses.
Earlier this month, the Bellevue Council took a final vote on a sweeping rezone that has the potential to add tens of thousands of new homes directly between the Eastside’s two largest job centers. That vote came after months of debate between housing advocates and business interests over development regulations and the levels of mandated affordable housing, all with an eye toward ensuring that a Wilburton primed for redevelopment actually takes off.
This week, the City approved a $1.4 million contract with engineering firm HNTB, Inc. to provide “project manager and owner advisor services” on the connection, essentially guiding the city through full design into construction to deliver a project of this scope and scale.
A 2027 start of construction had been the City’s optimistic estimate earlier this year, but getting there will likely require a different state and federal funding environment than the one Bellevue currently finds itself in. Nonetheless, getting to full design should allow a shovel-ready plan to move forward when those dollars become available.
The Office of the Grand Connection will officially launch on July 16.
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.